Juniper's Gone Bananas



Three weeks ago, we started Juniper on food. A few days of rice cereal and then on to bananas. She has really enjoyed the bananas. She is good eater! We started carrots a few days ago but she is not as keen on them. She has since stopped helping feed herself, like in the pictures below. We will probably do the Brits' favorite vegetable next. Peas. (Although maybe potatos are really their favorite? But who feeds a baby potatos?)
I didn't realize that human food would make breast feeding seem so easy. But I enjoy our time spent feeding her with the spoon. So does her daddy. We feed her in the same yellow bowl. She is trained already. She shows excitement when the yellow bowl is in sight. She still likes momma milk best though!

Runt on a Punt

We finally got around to punting- four days before the season ends and they take the boats out of the water. A punt is a type of boat and a famous past-time in Cambridge. You use a pole to move the punt forward. It's a good way to see the colleges from the river Cam.
Kirby had one lesson before his term started. Off we went with that single experience. It was a windy day but a decent temperature, until Kirby fell in. Just kidding, although I have met people who fell in because the pole got stuck in the mud and they didn't let go. I lost the pole in the mud when I took my turn at it. Don't worry, I didn't fall in either. Luckily, we had a paddle with us. 

The colleges in Cambridge are very old. The university is 800 years old. I don't know all the dates on these buildings but they are older than our country. 

This is the most strenuous thing I have done since having the baby! It really wasn't that bad. Good for my muscles. Kirby was a real gentleman and let me take my turn upstream and against the wind. Some of tour guides had about 15 people on a punt. We overheard the tour guide talking about this strange duck and its weird wings. Maybe an escapee from the Cambridge biology labs? Have you ever seen one like this?

 We rented the punt from Kirby's college. It is one of the only colleges with its own punts. Each college has its own perks. This picture is of Darwin's library. Poor Kirby has to study there.

Juniper seemed to enjoy herself. She usually does when she has mommy's lap and a toy. She enjoyed watching Kirby. She took a nice snack and nap along the way. Part of the fun of punting is to take along wine and snacks. It's very romantic. Maybe next time we will take some wine.

Arriving In Cambridge

Overall,  travelling alone with Juniper wasn't bad. The flight was empty and the airplane noise muffled any little cries she had. At 4 1/2 months she is happy just being in mama's lap, awake or asleep, which is actually starting to be a bit of an issue. From what I hear from other mothers, I should enjoy it while I can. That is part of the specialness of this year in Cambridge for me: to give my full attention (as much as a person can) to Juniper.
At the end of the 7 hour flight I got a few comments on how they never heard a peep from her. I managed to use the airplane toilet with her in my lap a couple times. Yeah, I could have asked a flight attendant for help, but we were already in there to change her (one toilet had a changing table in it luckily). She did a big poopers right after takeoff so we had to wait 45 minutes to reach 30,000 ft and the silly seatbelt light to be turned off.
I didn't really manage to get any sleep from 3am that morning until 3am the next morning. (Thanks for joining me at 3am and bringing me to the airport Dad!) Still didn't get much the night we arrived either. After we met up with Juni's daddy at the airport (so happy to see his little girl after three weeks), we had fun carrying a baby, a stroller (pram/buggy), and three large pieces of luggage (only one with wheels) up an escalator and onto the Tube. We traveled an hour on the Underground to Kings Station.We then ran to catch the last train to Cambridge with 2 minutes to spare, and only because a customs agent at Heathrow let all the people with children skip the hour+ line(queue). On the train a really nice lady gave us her seat, and then later she handed me a note of all kinds of info to help me get around Cambridge with a baby (she was a mother of two young ones). Then another couple hours on the train and taxi to our guest room at Darwin College at Cambridge University.  This is when our good little pumpkin realized she was overtired and in a foreign place and decided to cry and scream inconsolably. It would have not been so bad, except we weren't suppose to have a baby in the guest rooms!  She finally fell asleep. I slept in some strange position as to not disturb her. All-in-all, not too bad. I didn't feel stressed until maybe a little that last moment, but what is a mother to do? Welcome to Cambridge mum!